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User blog:MongooseLover/What are your ideas on how to structure the wiki?
I have my own, based on how previous admins did it and what I'd like to expan (and, at times, contract) from what they had. Fanfiction I think that in terms of fanfics, I think we should reinstate the requirement that they have a link to the fanifc (at least, in most cases, the thing for fanficition video games like Geometry Invasion is still a mystery to me as to how to handle it). We should end people just writing their story or their art on the thing directly (note, I'm not sure if allowing people to post their whole story, like i did with Friendly Sharptooth Flyer, should be acceptable as a substitution for an off site link as there could be arguments for or against it). Ratings I think we'd prefer to keep it G or PG (all LBT movies and the TV series have been rated G. We could include PG if we wanted a slightly scarier version. However, I'm really histant about PG13 or higher rated stuff. (VERY skeptical on R-rated stuff.) As for profanity, I think, given that Land Before Time is a G-rated family-freindly show, that it should either. 1.) Be only allowed within a subsection of the fanfiction section with it clearly labeled so people know what they are dealing with. or 2.) Not allowed at all. As for sexually related material, I think if it is vaguely implied (like two characters go into a cave or something and it says no more than that but that one might be able to guess what they did or that they may have done such at some point, that might be able to slide, perhaps. However, anything going into the detials in any way should be a major NO-NO for wikis of a children's series. By that same token, though farting can be allowed, other than someone syaing "I need to use the john" so to speak, let's not bring any bathroom functions into this (either #1 or #2) into this wiki. Barfing might be ok though. OCs I think I can be fair that, unless you are just correcting typos (or getting rid of plagarism of somoene else's content), messing with someone else's fanfic or OC, or anything like that, pages should be a no-no. You can report it or suggest it be deleted if you feel it violates rules or have a huge issue with it, but leave it to the admins and others to deal with the content, don't do it yourself. Also, an OC should also have a story or art behind them, much like a fanfic thing. They shouldn't just exist on this wiki alone (or else there will be chaos.) If there happens to be OCs that happen to have the same name, perhaps you could differentiate them based on who created them by putting it in the page title. Altered Canon Characters This was a new idea of mine, though this one will inevitably end up having to have the author's name in the title or some other way of identify it from ones thar are certain to have the same character name as it. This is very similar, in some ways, to an OC in ways of writing in that it is non-canon and you can decide what you want for it, with the exception that it's NOT an original character. For instance, an example would be a page for Littlefoot's mother and what she may have said, done, or where she went if she hadn't died in that attack in the 1st movie. Or a Chomper page where Chomper never got picked up by the kids in the 2nd movie, hence making him an antagonist of the 5th movie. Things like that. Much lke an OC, ediitng, other than for grammar, should be left to the main author of the page out respect.This one would be kinda new (as normally, it was just under fanfiction before) and was also my idea. Non-Canon Species Currently, I think I have this under the FanficDino category (though that can be changed) that would be for species that are in fanfics but aren't canon. They should stay in this category to keep them from being confused with the canon ones. This one, unlike the OC, Fanfiction, and Altered Canon Character ones, might possibly be allowed to be editable by other than the creator of the page as it is more generic. This one was also my idea and hasn't been done in the past. For right now, I think we should stick to REAL dinosaur species, instead of something like "Evil Bigheaded Sauron-fluny-osaurus" or something like that. On the flip side, as non-canon species aren't, well, canon, linking to OC types who are of this would be ok, even if they are from different authors. Like before, I think you should have a story with this one or some art, and not just add it for the sake of adding it. Non-Canon Types Much like "Longneck", "Sharptooth", "Egg Stealer", "Fast Runner", "Fast Biter", etc, this would be types like that, only non-canon ones. While I suppose overlapping types could be allowed (for instance, I think letting "Halftooth" and "Bothtooth" be used to describe omnivore. Unlike Non-Canon Species, though, this one is more likely to be less generic and hence should, for the most part, unless you also want to use one of this type, though perhaps you should ask the original creator of the term's permission first before you do it, be left to the author of the page. This aso would require differentiation between the actual canon types. Also, again, you should have a story or something with this type, rather than just making it for the sake of making it. Fanfiction Places This could be like before, and again should be author specific and respected by the author. However, as this could wildly get out of hand, I think we should just limit it specfiically to the LBT universe. (i..e no New York City article, no places for the Jurassic Park series, etc.) We should also use a template to keep these separate from actual canon LBT world places. Again, we can use author names if there happens to be any places with duplicate names that need to be told apart. Before, this was all in the fanfiction category, but I thought maybe I should have its own separate category. New Idea for How to Handle Fanfics/OCs, etc by the Same Author Ok, I had tried to put it in the page name, hoping it would make a Mongoose Lover page that could show them all, but it didn't. I had thought something was wrong so I tried to fix it. Now, after several attempts at fixiing, I ended up with a Land Before Time Wiki/Mongoose Lover/OC/Mongoose Lover/Velo page and cannot fix it again. (Likely the page will have to go as it has like 3 redirect pages, which, since they exist, it cannot be renamed to something better.) At any rate, I think putting the author's name as a category page will work FAR better than my original idea. I think though, due to the same problem of it refuisng to make pages with the same name, that KEEPING the policy of haivng the author's name in the AlteredCanonCharacter or anything that is likely to overlap is still a good idea (if for no other reason than to make sure that people can make moer than one page with the same character. Otherwise, whoever wrote an altered Choomper story would have a monopoly on that character. I ran into that with Star Wars where I wanted to make an Ahsoka Tano Fanfiction wiki entry, but since somebody already got there first, I basically had to let theris be and wasn't allowed to alter it and don't think I could make a new one.) At any rate, even for altered canon characters, I think putting the author's name as a category is still a good idea. As for poor Velo, his life is hard enough having to be a pack leader and having his uncle scare away most of his friends. He really doesn't need a messed up wiki page too so we should deal with that once we get an admin. Pictures There really hasn't been any poicy on pictures per se, that I know of (other than perhaps Wikia's in general). I think any adult content pictures shoud be forbidden. Also, I think non-LBT related pictures should also be forbidden, even if the character is in a LBT fanfic. (For instance, even if you have someone from Rugrats in a LBT fanfic, having just a picture of Tommy Pickles alone shouldn't be allowed, as otherwise, this could get crazy and fast. Having Tommy and Chomper together in a picture should be ok. Also, I think adding pictures that aren't story related or canon related (i.e. they aren't a canon species, a non-canon species, or some type that you use in a story or art should also be discouraged, lest this get out of control. (These would include even LBT related ones like the younger version of Grandpa and Grandma Longneck, which, though they are definitely LBT related, really have nothing to do with any story in this wiki.) (Note: Anything from the actual movies or series, merchandise for the movies or series, etc, would NOT fall under that category; it would be more like fanfic images that would be impacted. Videos I think the same should apply for videos as for pictures. Section Linking One idea that crossed my mind, though it would ruin the OC, Fanfiction, etc, templates that we planned would be to have a link to all your stories form the same directory so that everyone can tell who wrote what. I'm going to use myself as an example: Land Before Time Wiki/Fanfiction by User/MongooseLover/ and if I had several fanfic movies, epsidoes, or stories, I could all put their titles after the heading above so that it is clear that I created them. We could also do something similar with OCs that an author created, altered canon characters, and fanfiction places. Guest Editing Perhaps to make sure things are followed and that things don't get out of hand, we should limit, or perhpas even prohibit altogether, non-registered users from editing this wiki. This policy should help reduce the number of trouble makers that we are likely to face. Profiles Again, this is kind of common sense, but spamming people's profile pages should be forbidden. Perhaps we could allow talking on their talk pages, as long as it wasn't harassment or whatnot, but profiles should only be editable by the person they belong to, not just by anyone. (Even if the wiki format physically allows it, the rules shouldn't.) Blogs Let's keep the blogs LBT related and family friendly, just like the other stuff. This isn't the place to mention how you are dealing with the breakup with your girlfriend or what political party you like/hate, etc. URLs Please try and make sure you don't link to any illegal download/viewing sites to LBT (or other) movies. We don't wnat to get into trouble. Also, no porn links or links to adult content. That is a no-no. (Actually, don't post copyrighted stuff that could get us in trouble to this site at all, not just links. If you and we aren't supposed to have the rights to it, it can't be put here.) Quotes The quotes page (like the "List of Littlefoot related quotes" page ) are going to be changed to link back to the character in quesiton (much like how the Gallery pages do.) See Littlefoot/Quotes to see what I did and judge if it was ok or if I should have kept it the way it was. Galleries Maybe it's not such a big deal for one-movie or one-episode only characters, but others like more main ones or ones that have a lot pictures should perhaps have their own separate gallery page as part of the policy rather than trying to cram all the pictures into the main article page. (i..e. if we had like 50 Shorty pics, perhaps we should have a Shorty/Gallery page with them rather than trying to put all 50 on the same page as the Shorty article.) Just a thought. New Template Things I have tried to make custom requested action templates just like Wookiepedia has, only with Land Before Time pictures and stuff. So far, I have one that suggests that a page is a stub and should be updated. It has a picture of Chomper's egg and says that the page is a stub and should be updated. There is another one that suggests that a page is nonsense and should be fed to Chomper. It has an angry Chomper picture. This one is if you THINK a page should be deleted (usually a fanfic page) but want to ask the admin first. There is another one, that shows a dead Littlefoot's mother (was that off color???) and says that the page has died and that an admin should delete it. This one is for if you KNOW a page is nonsense and have already deleted the contents or if you yourself created the page by mistake or decided that it is no longer necessary as the species type has already been shown to be something else and that a correspondiing page has already been made and that this old one is a duplicate (things like that). There is another one that shows Ducky gasping and suggests that a page needs major edits. (This is for a page that is no longer up to date or that has been the victim of false information or vandalism and that needs to be edited promptly to improve wiki quality.) There is one that is for spolers. I was trying to think of something like "No, I am your father!" from Wookiepedia that could be used to denote spoilers. I thought of having the scene where Littlefoot meets Bron, as actually that WAS a major spoiler for film 10. We can use this template for all the new stuff for Journey of the Brave once it comes out. (And also, if we want, for our fanfics if we wanna warn people of spoilers or just for the heck of it.) These aren't the traditional Wiki templates, as I kinda get them, kinda don't, but a mixture of html and the Wiki templates (as I know some HTML (though not all works here) and also know some of the wiki template formatting and can guess others by the buttons in the source mode.). I put them on the New Table Template Page (or something like that). You should see them if you look for a page with that name, though, now that I moved it to the template category, it may not turn up in the regular searches as I originally named it, who knows. (I copied them from the template page to here to show them.) Page Has Many Errors Template: This page needs serious edits. It does. It does. Fanfic Page Is Crap Template: This page is nonsense and should be fed to Chomper. Page Has Died Template: This page has died and should be removed by an admin. Page Is a Stab Template: This page is a stub and more information should be added. Spoiler Template: "Littlefoot, I'd like you to meet your father." This page contains MAJOR spoilers for a recently released or soon to be released item. Too Much Speculation Template: There is too much speculation on this article and not enough sources to back it up. Content Getting Off Color Template This content is getting off color and should have the inappropriate parts removed. User Warning Template Warning, you are getting out of line and continuing this behavior will result in a ban. User Ban Template You have been BANNED for breaking too many rules. User Arguing Needs to Stop Template: You guys are arguing too much and it needs to stop! You Need to Stop Trolling Template: Stop trolling the wiki! Empty Page Template (unlike the stub template, this should be used for a page that was created but has zero content, like perhaps someone made it but forgot to add stuff.) This page is emptier than Mutt's head and needs some content! Spoiler Template 2 (This is for a section that you might wanna black out for those that don't want to know something till they view it. It is preferable to use for certain sections. I think the black background should work to do this yet let those who wanna see see it by highlighting it with their mouse.) Spoiler Content Below This content is a spoiler. It contains stuff that users might not wanna see till they view the content. It could be cooler if I could use CSS and JS but I cannot yet. End Spoiler Award Templates? Should there be award templates, like for best articles, best fanfictions, better than an actual LBT movie fanfiction award, etc? Templates in Mobile Form? Ok, I have noticed that the templates don't look as pretty in mobile form as they do in Desktop/Laptiop form. Should we just accept that or forget the template idea due to the possibility of some of them possibly coming out ugly in mobile form (more users are using mobile, so this is a potential concern)? So far, it dosn't appear to do more than possibly leave lines out of tables, but mobile is always trickier than desktop. Background Images Ok, assuming we do get a new admin and that admins and bureaucrats (and not just wiki owners) can change the actual formatting of the wiki, what should we have as the new wiki image? (Note, chanigng this will confuse a lot of people who are using the old logo, like the Gang of Five.) Also, I noticed that we aren't required to have the light blue side thing but could, if we had sufficient power, get the wiki sidebars to have the Great Valley show or something. (I know we don't have to have that light blue color sidebar theme as the Disney wiki has a picture as the sidebars.) (BTW, it appears that admins, but NOT bureaucrats, can change the skin and stuff.) Making an Article for Somebody Else's Fanfiction Story: Should That Be Allowed? What should be the policy of making an Article for a fanfiction that you DIDN'T make (the author might not even be a LBT Wiki user for that matter) on this wiki? If the person credits the person and links to their story rather than trying to pass off it as their own (something that should be discouraged at this wiki), should that be ok or should people only be allowed to write fanfiction articles that they created? On the one hand, there might be very good Fanfiction stories out there that aren't made by one of us that could be great putting it here and that actually might help get viewership for said author. On the flip side, it seems very easy for someone to mess with the content of said story, editing out stuff that they don't like from the story, or even putting thier own thoughts on it to try and make it mean something different than what they author intended. (Note: I'm not talking about leaving out anything that might be risque, profane, etc, that might diminish the quality of the wiki. Indeed, having a story that has too much of that probably isn't a good idea to add here to begin with.) One good story I found was the Swimmer Trials from fanfiction.net and the Gang of Five. It seems ok as far as language and content. However, that story was not mine. Fixing the "Auto-follow" feature Not sure if this is Wikia's doing and cannot be changed or if it was their doing but the previous admins just never fixed it or (heaven forbid) that one of the previous admins set it up this way, but somehow it is setting, when you create, change, or whatever a page, that it sets the option to "follow page" automatically, meaning you have to notice it or else you could be following a LOT of pages (I noticed that I was following about 200!!!! ARGH!) To make the wiki so it's not like those online petitions where, if you sign it and aren't careful, you'll also, by sending in the peititon, be, thanks to an auto-checked box of "email me stuf", be being put on an email list, I think we should set it, if we can, so that it's NOT auto-following an article every time one makes a change to it. What to Do When Land Before Time OFFICIALLY Ends Ok, we did have like an 8 year period between the TV Series and movie 14 where it looked like LBT was done for, but nothing was ever official. Say one day (heck, they could even be intending Journey of the Brave to be the last one.) that they say that no more will be made? That will mean, soon enough, no more new material and that fanfiction will be the material of any new stuff. What should we do at that point? (Note: It's got to be close to holding a world record for longest lasting children's animated series with 1988- 2016+, but one day, it IS going to end. It might be with them as adults and a theatrical finale and maybe even see their descandants, but it's likely to end soon after that. They aren't going to keep going way past after the original characters have died or anything like that. This is not likely to be one of those types of series. Also, if they are keen on avoiding the "Chomper problem", they are likely to end sooner rather than later.) Timelines for movie releases and TV Series episode releases I notice that there are pages that just ahve the year each movie was released. For instance, there is a page for 1988, one for 1996, etc. Why not get rid of all of those and just make one big page for the movie releases and TV Series episode releases? Further Ideas or Questions? So, what do you think on what I came up with? Do you like it? Do you dislike it? Do you not fully get what I said? Do you have other ideas that I didn't mention but that you think are a good idea and should be brought up? Please tell. I'm trying to help improve the wiki and want to formally bring up ideas as to how to fix and improve it as it really needs it and nobody was formally doing this, leaving me to feel that I had to as something MUST be done. Things CANNOT go on as they are. Category:Blog posts